As always during a congress, Wednesday is an off-day for most tournaments. This leaves time for all manner of different activities: those looking for a more somber and thoughtful experience went to the historical city of Weimar for a city tour and followed it with a visit to former concentration camp, now museum, KZ Buchenwald.
Sportsfans, however, finally got their opportunity to combine Go with exercise! Biathlon Go, similar to the alpine sport it was based on, saw participants running and solving Go problems back to back, breathlessly. Mistakes on the Go boards meant adding penalty time. The athletes with the fastest times won. Congratulations to the winners Klaus Freudenberg (Senior division), Manja Marz (Women’s), Chen Yikuan (Men’s), Angelika Rieger (Girls’) and Svjatoslav Shalnev (Boys’).
But the highlight of the day definitely was the Russian Night, organised by the Russian Go Federation! Traditional Russian garb worn fabulously by the ladies lead one to believe we were in for a dignified and dry cultural display. Nothing could have been further from the truth…
Visitors were asked to perform and take part in over two dozen activities, including: sack races, musical chairs, tug of war, traditional Russian dances, jigsaw puzzles, a trivia quiz testing your knowledge on Russia and Karaoke, Karaoke, Karaoke! Guests were a little hesitant at first, but the flow of free beer is known to lower inhibitions.
Each completed event granted tombola tickets to be redeemed by the lovely “Lottofee” Natasha Kovaleva. Nearly everybody went home with at least one handmade Russian toy or ornament. Какое прекрасное время*!
